Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-07-09
GUM, FRESH AND FRAGRANT.
How 1t Is Gathered-Its Native Forest.
 Adu1teratf ion.


 How It Is Gathered-Its Native Forest. |
 Adu1teratfon.
 A lump of clear, genuine spruce gum, | fresh and fragrant from its native forest, | is not to be despised as chewing sub stance, and if everybody could get the real article, instead of cheap, adulterated stuff, the army of chewers would be vastly augmented. The natural gum is said by physicians to be beneficial to the teeth, and it is certainly great improve ment on tobacco. The woodsmen bring out considerable quantities of gum, some- times packed in pretty miniature barrels, which they whittle and carve from blocks of white pine or cedar during idle hours by the camp fire, as presents for their friends, but there are people who make Q business of gathering gum, and in cer tain sections of the spruce country it pays well.
 Most of the spruce gups handled by the dealers comes from Canada and northern Maine, while Vermont and New Hamp- shire contribute moderate quantity to the total yield. The best gum comes from no particular section, but always from the biggest spruce trees, and it begins to run in July or August, when, in these high lati- tudes, the sun becomes so hot as to crack the bark. On the irnSs: in tihie crotches, and even in the trunk of the spruce, the molten gum forms during the heat of summer in all sorts of fantastic shapes, and when cold weather sets ill it becomes hard. The first year after it's run the gum is white and pitchy, then it begins to turn amber and red, and the second year it is ft to ''pick'' for the market, | although it is better if allowed to remain on the trees until the third year. After the third season the gum remains i'll the same state for several years, and then begins to ''turn old, as the pickers say, and the consumer complains that it "chews hard'' and crumbles up. A little more age makes it dark colored and bitter, and then its value is gone.
 Up in Canada much of the gum is picked in the autumn, beginning as early as October, but there, as in Maine, the best time for tbe work is during the deep snows of the winter, when snowshoes are used, or in the early spring, when a man can travel along at lively rate on the heavy crust, above the underbrush. The pickers are provided with long poles, on the end of which is fastened sharp chisel, and underneath that 8 cup to re- ceive the gum as it is clipped off. The cup holds from a pint to a quart, and when full it is emptied into long bag which the packer carries slung to hi:
 back like knapsack. These gum har
 vesters erect huts in the woods when fal
 distant from settlement or logging
 camp and stay from two days to weel | Ax-,1 LO1 n,
 much as they can ''tote'' they come out
 and then the women and children hay,
 the tedious job of scraping each anC
 every lump free from bark and moss The clean, bright article offered for sal
 in the shops looks very much differen from the brown nuggets in the picker -bag, although occasionally clear, shin,
 piece is found on the limb sf large tree It is the cleaning of the gum tha
 makes first class article expensive. Al ordinary picker usually earns fair day wages, although in localities that hav
 not been explored he sometimes ''strike it rich" have known man to gathe $50 worth of gum in one day.
 There are two or three firms in Main which buy large quantities of gum iron lumbermen and pickers for the purpos refining it, as they say. But, as genera rule, the refining consists of adulteratiol with rosin. They throw the gum into
 big vat, bark: moss and all, and boil it t about the consistency of molasses, skim
 ming off the impurities as they rise t the surface. Then, if the purpose be t adulterate, some lard or grease and lo of rosin is thrown in, with sometimes little sugar. The mixture is stirred untj
 thick, and then poured out on a slat where, while it is yet hot, it is rolled ou in a sheet about a quarter of an inc thick, and afterward cut with steel di into pieces half an inch wide and three quarters of an inch long. These piece are wrapped in colored tissue paper an , packed in wooden boxes-200 pieces to box. This is the socalled patent gum Tons of it are sold south and west of us but here on the verge of the primevs forest it is drug in the market. .-Bango
 (Me.) Cor. New York Sun.